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woah jp. that is some crazy beautiful yardage. your parents' as well. marci. i like your boxes. i havent tried those new boxes that go over the edges. we have a porch now and they would look great out there, although im kind of late in the spring/summer planting season. i need to do some research as id like to have some perennials blooming all planting season and to be able to supplement with annuals in containers. im being slightly over ambitious, as bear said, sometimes a blank slate is a bit overwhelming!

These gardens put mine to shame! Our garden is immensley long. The man that lived here before it started getting rented out had it all landscaped with amazing roses and pathways at the top. Sadly, tenants did not keep on top of it and the landlord was not overly fussed. Now we rent it and we're having a bash! The garden is separated into two parts. When we came to view the house we couldn't get up past the gate so the other 80-90 feet was overrun. Brambles are a huge issue for us. I'm training them up the fence separating the bottom garden from the top but they're up in the roses and all sorts.

We've got good soil here and because our garden is on a hillside we get lots of sun (when it's out). So, we have been dabbling in vegetables. I'm a total novice at it but it's coming along. We currently have two patches but will be digging a big third one soon. I've chopped the roses down from above my head height to my knees. I didn't have the heart to do it last year as they were in bloom and SO pretty. After the bad snow, I gave them the chop before they could bloom again. They've yet to flower this year but I can see some buds.

We've just redug the greenhouse base out. It was full of broken glass, bricks, plastic sheeting and LOOOOONG grass. We'll probably burn off the ground inside it before we attempt to put up another planthouse.

Our patio is unstable and although we killed off all the weeds last year, they're back. Our grass grows like the clappers too! I've now finished sanding and painting the garden table and chairs which looks nice when the parasol is up. Well, if you look at it through squinty eyes.

The front garden is mainly grass with a gravel border which I put potted plants into. The snow has killed some of these beyond belief so half need re-doing and only one of my hanging baskets lives on.

I don't have any amazing pictures but here's a public link to my garden album on FB. It gets updated (mainly with veggies) every so often.

I want to make my yard a beautiful oasis like my parents, but I just don't have any vision for it and I can't figure out how to make things look all layered and pretty like my Mom does. I have a small flower bed in my front yard, but the only thing I manage to do is to plant everything in neat little rows (which she would never do). Anytime I try to do something more organic-looking, it just looks like a big mess. I think gardening/landscaping is just not my thing.

Jaypea, can you get hold of any scatter seeds? Basically it's a bag of wild flower seeds which you just throw over the grass. We did that and it looks more natural! Hardly took any time for them to come up.

I am definitely bookmarking this thread. I want so badly to get into gardening, but I have no idea what I'm doing at this point. I made a major step by cleaning out all the dead leaves, branches, and weeds out of the backyard this weekend, but apparently I just went rolling around in poison ivy (or sumac? I don't even know) all day. I can't stop itching now. Someone kill me please.

This is my front yard/entry area, taken last month, so it's even fuller now. I really like it, although there's an empty looking area where I put annuals in that I want to put more perennials in (that bottom area in the second pic). The huge spruce makes it nice and private so I'm not constantly looking out at my boring suburban neighborhood. Instead it's green lush and intimate (except for the next door neighbor but that's a whole other story *sigh*)

I'd like to plant more flowers. Lots of my neighbors have poppies in spring, and they just look so lovely. Sad thing is they don't last very long. My gardening handbook says I should plant the seeds in September, so I'm going to do that and hopefully next year my garden will look like my neighbor's:

I have a Pride of Barbados growing in the front bed and would like to cultivate it so it will be so big, bushy and bright. This plant is amazing. In the heat of summer, out it blooms with these red and yellow 6-inch-tall cone-shaped blossoms looking like fire and heat itself.

not the best picture and also not mine, but it gives you an idea of how awesome these plants look. I should snap some pics of my neighbor's pride of barbados. Phenomenal.